Shell's Beaufort Sea operations will wait on whale hunt

Updated 8:16 am, Friday, September 21, 2012

Inflatable boom stretches between oil spill response ships during training in Alaska. Shell has received the OK for initial Beaufort Sea drilling operations.

Inflatable boom stretches between oil spill response ships during training in Alaska. Shell has received the OK for initial Beaufort Sea drilling operations.

Photo: Jennifer A. Dlouhy

Shell's Beaufort Sea operations will wait on whale hunt

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Although federal regulators Thursday gave Shell Oil Co. the green light to begin initial drilling operations in the Beaufort Sea, that work will wait until native Alaskans finish their fall hunt migrating bowhead whales.

With the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's decision, Shell soon will be able to begin the same kind of top-hole drilling and site preparation in the Beaufort that it launched this month in the neighboring Chukchi Sea.

Shell officials have already conceded they will not try to drill into underground zones that could contain oil and natural gas, because an emergency spill containment system isn't ready and won't be on-site before ice moves in and closes exploration this year.

Under the permit approved Thursday, Shell will be able to dig a hole in the seafloor to hold a blowout preventer that will be used to safeguard against unexpected surges in oil and gas from the wellhead. By putting the device underground, the company aims to keep it out of the way of un- expected large ice floes that could otherwise damage the equipment.

The company also will be able to bore a pilot hole roughly 1,400 feet below the seafloor to check for obstructions or pockets of oil and gas, before eventually widening that hole and filling it with pipe and cement. The federal permit will let Shell complete the first two casing strings at the well.

"BSEE has set the bar high for exploration activities in the Arctic, and any approved operations must meet those standards," the agency's director, Jim Watson, said in a statement. "BSEE continues to closely monitor Shell's ongoing approved preparatory drilling activities in the Chukchi Sea, and today's approval of limited work in the Beaufort Sea must also meet the same rigorous safety, environmental protection and emergency response standards."

Shell's president, Marvin Odum, said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle last week that he hopes the top-hole drilling this year will lay the foundation for Shell to complete wells next year.

Shell estimates that about half of the time it will take to drill its Arctic wells to their target depth is consumed by initial drilling and site preparation.

The company has made plans to complete up to 10 wells by the end of the 2013 Arctic drilling season.

Under an agreement reached with native Alaskans and codified in the government's conditional approval of Shell's broad drilling blueprint, the company is waiting for the conclusion of the seasonal bowhead whale hunt before conducting operations in the Beaufort Sea.